This column includes some stories from the Flensburg Files News Flyer
There are some people who are born to greatness and prove it through word and practice, both as a professional as well as in private life. They set examples for others (especially in the younger generations) to follow, endure and prevail in hardships, and succeed the hardest way possible, through the four Ps of success: perseverance, patience, passion, and persistence. Yet there are many who love to pretend they are the greatest, by showing off their greatness to the world with their words only and not showing the colors that fit the description. Many times, these marketing techniques can fail miserably through poor performance and scandals that can ruin ones popularity beyond repair. It is like buying a luxury car that has all the features a person could ever ask for (air conditioning, GPS computer, built-in cup holder and retractable seating), only to find that an important component (like the brakes or wiring) fails, and the driver loses control of the car, ending up crashing into a wall or a lake and paying a dear price for it.
This month so far, we have seen many promis who fell into that category as they showed off their greatness through their mouth but the exact opposite in practice. Tim Tebow, quarterback of the Denver Broncos (in American football the National Football League) pretended he was Jesus Christ in leading the team to the playoffs, knocking out the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round, and talking about his heroics and its connection with religion to the TV audience. This sparked a sensation known as Tebowmania, which many anti-Broncos fans were itching to see him eat dirt in humiliation. The New England Patriots under quarterback Tom Brady took care of that wish by not only burying him and his team 45-10 in the second round this past weekend, but also using him as a tackling dummy (and making him eat grass in the process). So much for Tebowmania, huh?
Then there is another American football team that everyone loved to hate with a passion, the Green Bay Packers. For 15 out of 16 games, they pummeled every single mediocre football team by an average score of 35-7. Yet the only loss was to another mediocre team (Kansas City), and the cracks started to show. Still, the team was way too proud and cheesy to address the problems and still stressed their greatness to the public. Bring in the New York Giants, a team that won only nine games and were projected to lose in the second round in the playoffs, and the team under Eli Manning disrobed the Pack under Aaron Rodgers on their home turf at Lambeau Field. I guess Goliath can bring down David after all. After all, the telephone switchboards of 1-800 GET HELP were blinking like a Christmas tree full of despair Packers fans after the Giants walked off the field feeling glorious and preparing for the NFC finals game against the San Francisco 49ers next week.
I just know that there was the sound of Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor doing a solo for the Mozart Requiem the next morning when I found out about the Giants’ clear cut victory over Green Bay, because it can be heard clearly throughout all of Germany from the halls of the German Parliamentary Building in Berlin. Perhaps she is a Giants fan, but maybe it is because she is broiling in her own anger because of another scandal that has hit the Parliament; this time it involves the German President Christian Wulff and his private loan affair to purchase a house.
It is hard to believe that Wulff can hold the second most powerful post in the German government (behind Merkel), smile in the face of the public and have the nerve to inform the public on how to be frugal in our spending for 2012 during the Christmas Eve address, that was watched by over 20 million viewers, but at the same time, expose his own corruptive deeds through his own actions. And to exacerbate the situation further, he threatens the media with actions that are considered unlawful to today’s standards. Apparently he does not like the fact that the media is already writing him off for dead and that it is glorifying the Social Democrats for planning his successor for Merkel. Perhaps if and when the Dream Coalition gets voted out of office in 2013 the future former cabinet members would rather take a trip on a cruise ship off the coast of Italy. After all, if they have a captain who can abandon ship after running it aground and tipping it over- before all the passengers leave, that is- they can relate their experience in the Bundestag to the events that occurred off the coast of Toscana.
That would be invincibility is a recipe for disaster unless you know how to deal with the people first and- in a proper way. Talk is cheap if you are unable to show your actions and impress the people first. Even my former math teacher and high school track and field coach once said that a person’s mouth and actions will determine one’s destiny. He is definitely right about that, yet people don’t seem to take that advice nowadays.
I would like to close this column by bidding farewell to a judge whose wit and charismatic actions have coined another terminology in the legal dictionary. Jeffery Flynn, the 5th Judicial Court Judge in Minnesota, whose residence is in Worthington, Minnesota, is stepping down after 27 years. He provided students at high schools throughout the region with a whiff of what life in the legal business is all about, encouraging even some of my friends and former classmates to embrace the business, either as a lawyer, solicitor or even a judge. His quotes to the convicted and to the audience helped coin the term Flynnism, and while some examples would take another page of my column (you can read the article here: https://secure.forumcomm.com/?publisher_ID=24&article_id=54414 ), it sometimes makes me wonder what he would have to say to the people who have fallen flat on their faces so far this month. Before I make my prediction on that, I will just leave this last part blank and hope that when he has the opportunity to read this column, he can close it with some comments on his own. Besides, his Flynnisms for the hot-headed whose air has been released (regardless of which side of the Atlantic they are on) can only be done by the person who has done his deeds to the criminals for all those years.
Flensburg Files News Flyer:
Apart from Flynn stepping down, the Giants have made it to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2008 and will have a rematch with the New England Patriots. The last time these two teams met in the Super Bowl, the Giants spoiled the Patriots run for a perfect record, which would have been the second time this happened. Game time is the 5th of February and given all the rumors from the audience and within the American Football league NFL, this could be the last time the Super Bowl is played on a Sunday. Proposals for a Super Saturday is in the making even as this column comes out.
ALSO:
Calls for German President Wulff to step down are getting louder, for despite him presenting his financial records that are in connection with the real estate scandal, the media organizations have accused him of making threats to the yellow press for exposing his housing loan and abuse of power, and his former press secretary Olaf Glaeseker is coming under fire for assisting him in some of the cover-up. The Opposition (SPD, Green and the Socialist party Die Linke) have been trying to work with Chancellor Merkel on finding a successor for Wulff, should he decide to step down sometime in the course of three months. And even some of the members of his own party (the Christian Democrats) are expressing their dismay and have recommended Wulff to step aside in the interest of the party and his own family. Currently, approval ratings have dropped from 72% to a sobering 30% in the course of two weeks. What will happen next remains to be seen.
As for the tragedy off the coast of the Tuscan Island of Giglio, 17 deaths have been recorded so far (six coming from Germany) with attempts to find the remaining 20 passengers being very difficult because of the capsized luxury ship slipping off the reef and into the water. The captain of the ship has come under fire because of his inability to see the passengers off the ship and the excuses that were made, such as falling off the ship into the lifeboat. Needless to say, even if he is acquitted, his days of navigating the ship are finished after this incident.
More info here: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15683975,00.html and http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15705486,00.html
